Archive | Government

Yesterday I tweeted that legislation made in haste, is rarely good legislation. It was only after that I discovered that indeed it appears the government is careering headlong down a path of disastrous legislation to regulate lobbyists. Unfortunately much of the media coverage and comments from ‘experts’ are simply spinning their own agenda or arguing […]

I spent yesterday at the European Parliament in Brussels running a training session for MEPs and their staff about Wikipedia and best practice. Most of what I said was based on the CIPR’s Wikipedia Best Practice guidelines that we produced last year in co-operation with Wikimedia and I had a small hand in helping to create. […]

You still meet many politicians who are sceptical about the value of Facebook. A familiar story is that they are too busy in their day-to-day life as a local councillor doing case work, attending community meetings, leafleting and door knocking to bother with Facebook. Many also see Facebook as being for young people and they […]

The Twitter Transparency Report published today reveals that the US government has made more demands that Twitter hands over private information about users than every other government combined. The US government has made 679 ‘User Information Requests’ of which Twitter has provided some or all of the information demanded in an astonishing 75% of cases. […]

To mark the first two years of the UK’s Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government the bright folks at Insight Public Affairs have put together a great mind map infographic of the policy issues. Insight has mapped out the: ‘headline policy drivers spanning: the economy; public service reform; localism; welfare reform; and, the international agenda.’ The mind […]

Online political monitoring company Yatterbox has created an infographic of reaction by MPs to the Queen’s Speech on Wednesday. Browse more data visualizations. Related articles Edelman Capital Staffers Index 2011 (stuartbruce.biz)

If like me you missed this week’s CIPRTV on the UK Cabinet Office’s proposals to introduce a Statutory Register of Lobbyists then it’s well worth catching up with it here: It’s presented by Russell Goldsmith of Marketiersdc and guests are Iain Anderson, of Cicero Consulting and Tamasin Cave, director of Spinwatch and leader of the […]

BDO has published an interesting report into the current use of social media within local government in the UK. BDO worked with Municipal Journal (MJ) to conduct a survey to find out how 67 local authorities are currently using social media to support a range of services. The report Updating your status: From housing and […]

Edelman and StrategyOne, its global public affairs team, has just released the 2011 Capital Staffers Index which ‘analyses top trends in global public affairs and communications.’ It’s the third such annual report and is based on interviews with more than 500 senior staffers (legislative directors and above â€“ not sure what job title this translates […]

It seems a month can’t go by without Bell Pottinger, the UK’s self-styled ‘leading’ lobbying company, embroiling itself in a scandal. Today’s Independent article has certainly sparked off a plethora of criticism and commentary, much of it ill-informed and ill-conceived. It’s important to try and separate fact from fiction and cut through the spin on […]